Hope for inquiry to stop sandalwood black market

The Member for Mining and Pastoral, Wendy Duncan, says she hopes a parliamentary inquiry helps address the growing black market for sandalwood.

This week, police seized two large quantities of sandalwood valued at $300,000.

Earlier this year, a group a Goldfields' pastoralists collected almost 2,000 signatures for a petition calling for greater freedom to harvest sandalwood on their holdings.

Ms Duncan says harvesting permits are too tightly controlled and that has led to an increase in illegal trade.

"Well the black market obviously is putting money in the pockets of people who haven't got the rangelands or the Goldfields in their best interest," she said.

"We definitely want to see the market properly regulated so that local people can benefit from all stages of it.

"The black market is something that's increasing and it's a product of the fact that there's a big differential between the legal price you can get and the market price on the black market, but the other thing is the penalty for illegal harvesting of sandalwood is not a disincentive."